Well Known Secret For Lovely Hair : Conditioners

from bath and body

Conditioners make the hair smoother and add body and shine. Most conditioners are made of large molecules that literally stick to the outside of the hair and make combing easier, which prevents the hair from snarling and breaking. (Hair tangles when the cuticle doesn't lie flat and the hairs can't slide by one another with ease.) Because they coat the hair, conditioners make it look shiny and protect it from sun damage or drying styling aids Rut with so many on the market, how do you know which one to use?

Today, conditioners come with a lot of different names—"revitalizers," "reconstructors," "finishing rinses," "elixirs," "untangling balms," and "hair masks"—but there are basically three different types: (1) rinse-through, which you leave on for less than a minute and wash right out; (2) treatment or repair (aka deep conditioners), which you leave on for anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes; and (3) leave-in, which you comb through but don't rinse out. Here's a thumbnail gloss on the ingredients you see on many conditioning labels. Conditioners often contain silicone, a highly reflective—but heavy—substance, along with moisture-binding humectants. The ceramides and complex lipids act as glue and make the scales lie flat. Emollients reduce frizz, and synthetic polymers bulk up the hair. Some treatment and leave-in conditioners contain proteins, which penetrate to the cortex and reinforce the structure from within.

If your strands are thick, coarse, or curly, conditioning will take the nightmare out of combing your hair. Use a protein-rich conditioner regularly, with an occasional repair or leave-in conditioning treatment. (If your curly hair is also fine, you'll have to experiment until you find a conditioner that's not so heavy that it weighs clown your hair.) If you make structural changes to your hair on a regular basis—colour, perm, or other processing—it will need conditioning to soften it and bind in moisture. Use a moisture- and protein-rich conditioner regularly, with an occasional repair or leave-in conditioner.

Otherwise, use conditioner sparingly. If your hair is of medium texture but you like the way conditioner makes it feel, go ahead and use a rinse-through or detangling conditioner. But use only a dime-sized dab and keep the conditioner at the ends of the hair. If you blow-dry your hair, alternate a rinse-through conditioner with a leave-in cream conditioner once a month. Apply to towel-dried hair and style.

Before conditioning, squeeze excess water from your hair so it will absorb better. Spread conditioner through your palms before you work it into the hair. Use only a tiny bit and work it through the middle of the hair and down through the ends. Or comb the conditioner through—from middle to end—with a wide-toothed comb. If your hair tangles, comb from the bottom up, a little bit at a time, as if you were climbing a ladder.

"Conditioner shouldn't be used on short, fine hair—ever,'' says Frederic Fekkai. "There's no need for it, and it makes the hair flat." If you need to detangle, Fekkai suggests using a light weight detangler or a cream rinse—it detangles without weighing the hair down. And if your fine hair is shoulder-length or longer, look for a lightweight, volumizing conditioner.